


Fate is Cruel...

by Dakota247



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: AU REBOOT, Abuse, Bad Parenting, Bonding, Empathy, Fate is cruel, Frank bashing, Hurt!Jim, Implied Sexual Abuse, Knotting?, Multi, New Species, Omega verse (kinda), Other, Psychic!Jim, Royalty, Running Away, Sam Kirk Bashing, Secrets, Tal’rika, Tarsus IV, Telekinesis, Vulcan, Winona bashing, Yaoi?, alien!jim, clairvoyant!jim, disturbed!jimmy, estranged family, hopeless, hurting!jim, suicidal Jim, telepaths, would things have been different?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-08
Updated: 2017-03-04
Packaged: 2018-08-07 11:08:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,784
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7712563
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dakota247/pseuds/Dakota247
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>[AU] George Kirk wasn't quite who he made himself out to be. He has a secret. when melding with his unborn child he finds something he wished would never have surfaced in his child. Hiding his child's existence is the only option he sees. That was before. Fate is cruel.</p><p>or </p><p>Family means everything to the Kirks. Except when it doesn't.<br/>Jim has to live with George's decisions and their consequences.<br/>Life isn't quite what it should have been. and neither is Jim.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Jim's POV - beginning in the middle? Red is here to stay.

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own star trek nor do I claim affiliates. I mean no harm by writing this story. I also am not making any money from it. Please take my use of star trek characters as a show of my love for them and wish to see them more often. Also I mean no offence in my use of them. This is simply my version of how things could have been.
> 
> Critics please be gentle. Constructive crititism only please.  
> Also this is unbetaed but I’ll try my best when proofing it.
> 
> Sorry if updates are sporadic. Life has a habit of being busy. 
> 
>  
> 
> Key So far:  
> Italics = thought  
> “haha”= talking  
> ‘italics’ = telepathic communication/ thoughts not from the POV owner  
> *** large gap whether time, flashback or POV change  
> *usually used when I changed location with skip forward. change what is being contemplated, etc haven't decided yet.  
> Explanation of vision. bold
> 
> i'll let you know if any of this has changed at the beginning of the chapter.

Chapter one - James Tiberius Kirk POV

 

The first thing little Jimmy Kirk ever remembered learning was that you couldn’t trust anyone. When it came down to it, when you actually needed someone or something, they would never have your back. 

 

He learnt this young. 

 

His mother Winona Kirk was absent at best. Abusive at worse;

Abandoning James to the clutches of his stepfather Frank when he was no older than four. 

 

***

 

Jim has always been a smart child… the top of his class. Reading applied physics and mathematics before he was seven. Being fully able to understanding and implement his knowledge at the same age… there was no arguing James was a genius. 

 

He strived to learn. Everything and anything he could get his hands on. Cause Jimmy was smart and more often than not bored. Or at least that's what he told his school councilor when she asked. 

 

Little Jimmy had lied. Or rather chosen not to tell the whole truth. Just omitting a couple facts isn’t necessarily lying. It just wasn’t telling the truth.

 

He would never tell her it was because he was lonely. That he needed an escape from the tension that seemed to be forever growing at home. That he didn’t have any friends at school. Sam had scared everyone away with tales of how he got their dad killed. That they all called him freak and whispered when he walked past. That he could hear their thoughts, everyone’s thoughts and that they have hated him even more when he yelled at them one day to “Stop, just stop, I know you hate my eyes but I can’t change that, I know I’m a freak with freaky ears but I can’t fix it…” freaking them out even more by quoting their thoughts word for word. They worse after that. Xenophobic. Apparently there no problem with being an alien (or half alien) as long as its obvious from word go. Any aliens that could pass as humans are ironically the scariest, ugliest, monsters around. One of them even wore a tin foil hat to school the next week. Claiming it’d keep the freaks away. Children could really be cruel. Jimmy didn’t need to tell the councilor that.

 

She already knew. He’d caught her thinking it before. That was before he started to actively block them all out. With little success at first but he was getting the hang of it. Not that it did him much good. Leaving him with a throbbing headache and blackouts. But he was used to pain by now… it didn’t take him long to adjust further to a different type. Pain was Pain. Anything was better than hearing how hated you were, while being told to your face what a smart and sweet ‘cutie’ you were. He just couldn’t handle that. He’d rather they were all like at home. At least there he could take them at face value. No matter how much he wished that they loved him and said nice things to and about him. They weren’t double sided at home…

_I don’t know if I’d want to know if they were…_

_*_

 

Home. That wasn't what he'd call it. That was what he was expected to call it. But it's not what it really was to him. Not going by what everyone at school told him their home was, but that was before my relationship was ruined with the other kids. Before I became nothing more than a freak. They taught me that Home meant to be loved, meant to be cared for and it meant to be at peace; a resting place, more often than not one with your relatives or caregivers. Home was safe and for fun.

 

Home mean happiness.  

 

But Jim could never remember being loved and the closest to happiness that he could remember ever experiencing was when he read in peace or that day Frank was to drunk to give him his daily bashing, while Sam was too busy to torment him cause he was doing an assignment last minute for school. That was the best day he ever remembered having. It was the only day he wasn’t hit.

Jimmy often wondered what it was that made him so easy to hate and despise. After all Sam and Winona loved dad and he was an alien too. So that can’t be the problem. And it was dad’s decision to stay on the ship. He knew he was going to die but wanted to save everyone – he didn’t want anyone else to die too. Old Mrs and Mr Redfern told me that last summer. _And they really believed it._ I even let down my shields to be sure they weren’t lying. Since than I had asked Miss Compton, my science and history teacher. She’s also the smartest teacher at school, and she said the same thing. She wasn’t lying either. So that can’t be the real reason despite what Sam says. _I have to be doing something else wrong… but what is it? I know its not grades_ (I’d seen another child getting in trouble for that) _, I do all my chores. Even the really scary ones that hurt that I only have to do when that one friend of Frank comes round looking for ‘the goods’ and ‘payment’. It’s a weird thing. It makes me sick._

 _So that can’t be it. Maybe if I asked for a hug it would make it better, it did for that one kid that apologized and asked for one. It looked really nice too. I even let down my empathic shields enough to feel what it felt like to them. It was warm as if the sun left kisses on skin, and a bubbly feeling in the pit of my stomach. But it wasn’t like when you’re sick. It was the best. All fluffy and soft. Better than reading books. I didn’t think that was possible._ Suddenly a thought overcame me, taking away that floating feeling with it.

 _I probably won’t ever feel it myself, I’d be stuck only feeling the truly amazing things through others._ And that was the first time Jimmy ever really didn’t hate the fact he had these abilities. They gave him some hope after all. Hope that someday he will feel that amazing feeling he just wanted to call love. But wasn’t.

After all it wasn’t the painful tearing feeling that Jimmy felt when failing to be what everyone wanted that he came to know as love. That fluffy and warm stuff that everyone at school feels from their parents – it just couldn’t be love. It had to be something else. So by Jimmy’s logic it meant that love was redundant. _I don’t need it and never will_. And so Jimmy’s search for what that feeling was began.

***

Everything changed so quickly. And yet it took till Jimmy was almost ten.

 *

I was doing the same thing as I usually do only today was the last day of school for the term. School was over, and I’d already taken the painstakingly long walk home on a dirt road, that was more sand then dirt, in the boiling hot weather that made me lightheaded and ready to collapse. And now I was reading a book quietly in my room. Wondering when Frank would get home from the pub, hoping it’d be really late, or when Sam would inevitably get bored enough to come and have one of his ‘special talks’ with me. The one about how he wished I was never born. How everyone was so happy before I came along. How I was the reason that Winona, not mum never mum to me, went away without us and left us with the drunkard Frank. Just thinking about it made me want to cry… If only I could. So instead my eyes did what they always did when I was sad… they turned from their faint dull blue that they usually were these days to black.

The colour all Tal’rikan eyes turn when they are sad, grieving, dejected or depressed.

_The colour my eyes would probably always be if I didn’t have my books._

After Jimmy turned eight things became worse than any other time in his life. And that’s saying something. Jimmy tried everything he could to fix whatever it was that he was doing wrong. Before coming to the solution that the thing he was doing wrong was existing. His once brighter and lively baby blue eyes changed forever after that. They became a shadow of themselves - So dull – so lifeless.

_I guess there was one thing that Sam was right about. It’s me. My existing is the thing that makes everyone sad. It explains why everything was fine before I was born but terrible now. It even explains why Winona doesn’t even look at me. She doesn’t want to see something that shouldn’t exist. It explains why a hug, the most magically thing I’ve witnessed, that fixed every other child’s problem, didn’t work for me… she didn’t even believe I was worth a hug. I felt her repulsion at the idea the moment I asked for one. Tearing down and mangling the little walls that helped protect me from what people think and feel toward me – it left them gapping. I haven’t been able to put them back together the same since._

_I wonder how much longer I have till I’ve lost the blue forever._ Jimmy thought unhopefully.

 *

As a Tal’rika or a half Tal’rikan Jimmy’s eyes where always changing colour. Depending on what colour you would be able to tell his emotional state. It would really come in handy if anyone took the time to learn what the colours meant.

That way when he went to school with black eyes the councilor could ask what was wrong, and tell if he was being honest.

 _Green for Honest…tender, touched and sympathetic_ … _Once I was naive enough to think that was my way out. That all I had to do was tell the truth and let them see my green eyes for them to know I needed help… I wanted out, that Frank hurt me more than they knew. More than I realised at the time. But No-one at school even bothered to learn what Tal’rikan eye colours meant._

_Even trying to tell Winona on one of the rare times she was back in Iowa was hopeless. She knew what the colours meant… But never looks me in the eyes. Her reply was quite simple._

_“Stop being spoiled and suck it up. Frank treats you fine. It’s your fault if you can’t see he treats you the way you deserve to be treated. Now get out of my sight, or so help me…”_

_I never did get to hear the rest, having run out the moment she got that all too familiar tone to her voice that was always followed quickly by pain, hunger, and for some unknown reason to wish to no longer be alive, to grab a knife and split the veins in by wrists – and watch disconnectedly- as my green blood flows out. Waiting for the time to come when I won’t feel anything at all. The feelings always followed by that slight tingle in my eyes signaling sadness… oh so red eyes._

_I’d only seen red eyes on myself once before that night it had only meant I was really ill then. Frank noticed and was forced to tone it back or I’d be dead, and someone was likely to notice that. Or so he said. I doubted anyone would notice me missing at all. Why would they when they never noticed when I went to school with broken bones right before their eyes. Not even bothering to hide them – praying someone would notice – no one did…_

_It was after that conversation though that I gave up hope that I would ever have a mother or family. It was then that I came to know what the other reasons for red eyes were. I had run right up to by sparse bedroom filled with only a bed, with threadbare sheets, one ratty old cupboard for his small amount of clothes and a pile of 5 books on the floor next to my bed waiting to be read – one was a book on Tal’rika. Closing the door after I went in, careful not to slam it incase of an extra hard and long hitting session. I turned to rest my head on the back of the door, so I could catch my hindered breath. But the glimpse of my reflection on the scratched mirror on the back of the door startled me… Red eyed. I had had red eyes. That was a first time. Normally it meant I was deafly ill. But I knew I wasn’t that bad. I was sad though. Sadder than I had ever felt before. So my eyes should have been black right?_

_I paused at that thought, then trudged quietly, not wanting to make even the floorboards squeak, over to my pile of books borrowed from the town library (the only place to get proper cardboard and paper books. I pulled the one on Tal’rika to the top. Searching the index I found the page with a guide to Tal’rikan eyes on it. Turning to the page – page 159- I immediately started reading._

*Book quote* “amongst Tal’rikan’s the transition of their eye colour to red can mean many things. Notably, however immediate action should be taken if one ever sees an Tal’rika with red eyes; as red eyes can be a sign of great illness, weather physical or mental – in the form of broken bonds, shields or a sign of them becoming suicidal or for an instinctual drive to take over their logical mind. In either of these cases it is recommended to take the individual to the nearest hospital, whereby the council – an authority on Tal’rika- will then gain custody of any Tal’rikan not of sound enough mind to make their own decisions. The only other reasons for red eyes is for fear. Not just common fear – that is more likely to turn their eye’s brown. No... a true fear… normally for their life. In this case it is recommended to approach the individual gently. Being sure not to take any fast movements, and assist and removing them from the situation whatever that might be. If the colour is unchanged afterwards proceed to the nearest hospital. There a Tal’rika ambassador will be notified. They will then take action so as the reason for the fear (red) can be ascertained and corrected.”

_So…probably wont be the last time… Red eyes meant true deep fear, illness and suicidal – in other words my wish to no longer live and feel this pain that is my life._

_*_

Bang! Smash… “SHIT” Frank’s drink slurred voice vibrated through the house. Waking me from my thoughts.

 

I closed my eyes, breathing out heavily, feeling hopeless. My wish was broken… I had hoped he wouldn’t be back until at least 0800, by then the sun would be setting over the never-ending dessert that was Iowa. The unpleasantly intense heat would have dissipated some. It would have been a lot nicer weather, nice enough for me to run outside the house, sneaking past Sam and Frank unnoticed. _I’d even had preferred to take Sam’s speech if it meant Frank would be home later… Or maybe if he’d never came home…_ Jimmy thought distantly, hating himself for wishing harm on another before shaking himself to reality.

_Maybe he’s forgotten about me already…_

 

“James, you ungrateful little freeloader… Get down here this minute and clean up this mess.” He screamed, spitting hate and slurring so many words; it was a miracle anything he said was even understandable.

Slowly standing up, cautious of pulling my already bruised ribs, I shuffled toward the door on a sprained ankle. _Luckily it’s just a bruise and a sprain this time,_ Jimmy thought. Last time it was two broken ribs, I had to rap them myself and a broken finger I had to splint that was a real pain to hide; both leaving me feeling drained for a month, as if on the cusp of a fevered sickness; constantly feeling like vomiting.

As I reached for the handle of the door I caught a glance of myself in the mirror. RED. They were red again. I breathed out, wincing in pain and bringing my other hand up to rest lightly at the source of pain. My ribs.

 _Hello red,_ I thought, giggling hysterically in my head, _you and I are becoming fast acquainted. You’re probably my greatest friend now._

 

“Get your ass down here now, I don’t hear your feet moving you stupid mongrel” Frank sneered loudly from the bottom floor.

_Guess it’s time to face the music… 3 floors down. Maybe I won’t come out of this alive…_

_Oh well… can’t be much worse._

But as usual… I’ve never had much luck.


	2. Salvation begins

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What happens the day after... The first day of school holidays.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Key  
> Italics = thought  
> “ Italicised Talking” – telepathy long distance?  
> “haha”= talking  
> ‘Telepathy’ = telepathic communication/projection/ thoughts not from the POV owner  
> *** large gap whether time, flashback or POV change  
> *usually used when I changed location with skip forward.  
> bold italics= Explanation of vision. 
> 
>  
> 
> Links to the beginning of the reboot movie.
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own star trek nor to I claim affiliates. I mean no harm by writing this story. I also am not making any money from it. Please take my use of star trek characters as a show of my love for them, and wish to see them more often. Also I mean no offence in my use of them. This is simply my version of how things could have been.

It was the day after Frank came home earlier than normal from the local pub. The first official day of summer break. Not that anyone on the old Kirk family farm would be enjoying it.

Little Jimmy, only 9 years old, wouldn’t have a chance to run outside and play like so many his age due to the events the previous night – leaving him barely able to move. Luckily, or perhaps unluckily, Jimmy had fallen into one of those deep slumbers that left him wary but significantly made healing quicker. James was always particularly careful to be sure to avoid anyone after he fell into the ‘healing trance’ as his book on Tal’rika called it. The book explained it as being an instinctual process that both Vulcan and Tal’rika have in common, that was similar to a human coma but with the body enhancing the healing process while the mind remains dormant. Nothing substantial was said after, only speculations of how this happened, how it evolved and what really happened to the minds of individuals during this process. The book said that nothing else was confirmed, stating that this knowledge was only given because a Vulcan healer feared the outcome of doctors from other species being uneducated and acting in a manor that would disturb a healing trance as it has ‘severe consequences’. Vulcans were always so cryptic and secretive. At least not as bad as Tal’rikan’s were though. If it wasn’t for Vulcan and their close ties to Tal’rika no information would have been distributed about how to treat them.

*

It was a readily known fact that if Vulcan was not a founding member of the United Federation of Planets, and a cousin race to the Tal’rika, they would never have became a member. Tal’rikan’s as a whole were more than happy to keep to themselves on their own planet, surrounded by a force field device. Tal’rika, the world, is known by even the Klingons to be a world never to attack. As the world is surrounded by active space mines designed to destroy unauthorized ships that enter too close to the world, as well as canons known to be able to destroy space stations and other planets in one shot. Nothing is known as to what they are called or what technology they use. Not even the Vulcan and Romulan’s know. Which is disconcerting considering they are the only races that have a positive relationship with Tal’rika, other than neutrality. Even now that they are technically apart of the federation, they have never really shared anything about themselves. Leaving it up to their cousins Vulcan and Romulan, and those very few Tal’rikan’s that chose to explore, to pass on information that is necessary in co inhabitance.

Even then there are massive blank spots in culture, medicine, history and even government, which everyone has simply chosen to not speak of. Leaving many races, in particular Humans and other races without psychic abilities, to believe that they are hiding something very important.

They were right.

*

Jimmy was just getting out of bed at 0500 hours after coming out of his trance. Shaking his head as if to shake out the darkness that always overcame him after. The slight warmth he felt at the edge of his mind just seconds earlier was already fading. Becoming so distant… Each time he woke from a healing trance it was like he was saying goodbye to a gentle, protective and warm being.

 _Almost as if saying bye to a person…_ Jimmy thought despondently, _Not that I’ve ever met anyone who was ever so warm to be before._

Letting out a breath that was more a sigh, Jimmy turned to look at the window adjacent from his bed. The sun was just rising from the horizon, and yet the golden cast had already chased away the night chill. Leaving the room feeling stifling hot – yet so cold. Jimmy was always cold for some unknown reason, even when it was 45°C, absurdly sweltering. He was freezing. Jimmy could only assume that it had something to do with the atmosphere, as a similar occurrence is said to happen in Vulcans when not on their home world or other worlds with similar atmospheric and oxygenation readings.

But that was beside the point.

An unfamiliar ache formed between Jimmy’s ribs and pelvis on the right side. _My heart… What’s wrong?_

Before Jimmy could analyse why it ached he heard the familiar sound of yelling. Frank was yelling. But this time he wasn’t yelling for or at Jimmy, no, he was yelling at Sam, AND Sam was yelling back!

 _No Sam you shouldn’t do that._ Jimmy thought as he remembered the consequences to the one time he ever fought back against Frank. _It’s not worth fighting back…_

Instead of the cry of pain or even the crashing of a body into a wall that Jimmy was expecting, there was nothing but more yelling and the sound of a door slamming.

 

Getting up cautious, shifting his throbbing body, he made his was towards the door, ignoring his familiar red eyes in the mirror, and stumbled down to the source of the noise. Throwing caution to the wind he opened the front door, the only thing separating him from the argument outside. Previously muffled voices became clear, as he gazed as the forms on the dust lawn.

 

 

“I’ve had enough!” Sam yelled.

“If you leave, you never come back.” Frank yelled.

“Ha, like I’d ever want to come back to this freak show.” Sam screamed before turning and walking away with a bag on his back.

 

 

The door squeaked on its hinge betraying his position to Frank who was standing looking out after the retreating form of his adopted half-brother Sam. Turning sharply Frank glared so intently at a dumbfounded Jimmy. Marching towards Jim was a furious Frank.

“Come here you little freak.” Jimmy cowered as Frank’s emotions shock passed his holey shield. He caught glimpses of what was about to happen. Of him being pulled back inside the house, rammed against the wall and with-strained there as Frank teared his clothes of before…

 _No... not again… ‘STOP!’_ Jimmy’s mind called, unknowingly projecting his thoughts for the first time. His projection was strong too. Stopping Frank's approach leaving him standing there stock still as his mind fought to rebooted. Meanwhile the projection continued it's path outwards from Jimmy, passing across the flat plain and echoing through the distant mountains, for all those with telepathic abilities to hear.

Taking advantage of the situation, a shocked and confused Jimmy ran towards the waiting red Corvette that had belonged to his father before Frank took ownership. Jumping in he quickly found the keys behind the visor. Slipping it into the slot with a clang and turning. The car started immediately, as if sensing the need to get away as quickly as possible. Turning behind him and seeing the still figure, he jammed his foot on the accelerator, speeding out of the property before Frank could realise what happened.

While hurtling down the dusty track, Jim fiddled with buttons, causing music to blare from the vehicle and its convertible roof to fly off. He screamed and waved at an astounded Sam as he passed him on the road.

 

“Eeeeewww wa wa wa wa,” A police hover bike sounded behind him. Coming up beside Jimmy the police points and says, “Citizen pull-over.”

Jimmy glances at the police with red eyes. Then he turns right immediately; speeding down a road heading towards what he knows is a gorge. _Escape, escape… I can’t be caught; I can’t go back to Frank._

Putting his foot to the floor, the car accelerates towards the cliff. Fully intending to go down with the car into the ravine. He closes his eyes for a moment and that’s when he hears it…

 _“No, don’t… Stop. This isn’t what you really want to do.”_  The sound of a gentle feminine voice pierces his mind. Followed by the feeling he always gets when in his trance. Caring, fluffy and sweet.

 _“Who?”_ His mind answers back, but he doesn’t get a chance to wait for his answer as an overwhelming urge to live flashes through his very being. Igniting the adrenaline in his system. He quickly, on instinct acts. Before he even knew it he was in a car turned sideways skidding towards the drop.

“ _Jump!”_ That mysterious voice calls urgently.

And he does. But he is sliding towards his fall. Feeling small rocks cut into his body and sensitive hands - creating unimaginable pain - as he digs his fingers and nails into the dirt to stop.

Only narrowly does he hold on. Almost falling. Dangling over the edge of the ravine. He claws his way up until he is standing just centimetres from the edge. Distantly he wonders why he listened to that voice. What the point was. He is just about to turn and step off when he is interrupted.

“Thump!"

Broken out of his musing Jimmy looks up to see the officer standing beside his bike. The officer takes a couple steps towards him, flicking his visor up in the process. Tilting his head to the side he asked.

“Citizen, what is your name?”

Without thinking Jimmy stares at the police while answering; “My name is James Tiberius Kirk.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It may take me a while to upload chapters in this story as I've been working more that normal and have started writing three other fanfics. I write in each as I'm inspired. I'm not sure if I'll be posting any of the others yet.  
> If I do they are all in different fandoms and I would definitely say they have a different writing style. Or at least at the moment they do.


	3. Officer 924

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Not how I expected my day to go...
> 
> (*3)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Key  
> Italics = thought  
> “Italics” – Talking telepathically... long distance?  
> “haha”= talking  
> ‘Telepathy’ = telepathic communication/ thoughts not from the POV owner  
> *** large gap whether time, flashback or POV change  
> *usually used when I changed location with skip forward.

*

  
Officer 924’s Pov

  
*

  
Finding a child not even yet 10 years of age, attempting to drive a corvette off a ravine surprised police officer 924 immensely. He definitely wouldn’t have guessed that this was where his day was heading.

  
But what surprised him even more was the condition the child was in. And that he was staring at him with scarlet red eyes.  
While the officer would consider himself an intelligent man he admitted to himself that this was a little too much for him to understand.

  
_What is a Tal’rikan child doing here? And with red eyes..._ The officer thought as he studied the child before him.

  
James Tiberius Kirk as he called himself, had straw blond hair almost going down to his chin, with gently pointed almost Elvin ears peaking through the rumpled strands. Much smaller and with less of a point than a Vulcan’s. His face was pale, too pale, with a natural hint of green one would expect from a race that is the cousin to Vulcan. Rich red eyes stare straight at me with no sign of fear. The child is clutching his hands to his chest tightly unbothered by the green blood running down the pale broken appendages, as if he is uncaring of then or unaware. A large hand shape bruise can be seen from under the once white shirt collar. Specks of blood are slowly forming from underneath the child’s shirt. He pays it no mind though while he transfers weight from one leg to the other, clearly favoring one over the other. His gaze assessing. Apathetic to the moving of the world.

 

 

It is obvious that this child has been injured greatly. _Most likely abused._ Being careful to appear as nonthreatening as possible, I take small steps closer to the child. When he itches slightly backward I still.

  
“Its okay kid. Just come towards me.” I say, instinctively reaching the palm of my hand out for him to take. Ignoring the part of my mind that calls not to do so, knowing that it is considered offensive to Vulcans and assuming it probably is to Tal’rikans too.

  
If it is, I will never know, because the child stares at the hand for a moment before looking up at my face, tilting his head to the side and stares inquisitional as if he can read my thoughts. _He probably can…_

  
I’m just about to take my hand back and apologies what the child takes a couple of unsure steps forward and reaches out to place one of his bleeding hands in mine. I smile beneath my mask.

  
The child is staring at he as if he knows and it obviously fills the kid with wonder, if the peaceful small smile that is forming on his face is anything to go by. _Maybe Tal’rikan’s aren’t that much like vulcans after all… They can show emotions._

  
I close my hand carefully around the injured child’s. I was about to ask him to accompany me to the nearest hospital or the station, but I don’t get the chance. The small form falls forwards. He is about to hit the ground when I catch him, sliding one arm behind his back, the other beneath his knees I lift him up and cradle the unconscious child against my chest.

  
_Hospital it is…_

 

  
***

  
Jimmy’s POV

 

An alarm was what woke him.

  
It always begins with an alarm.

  
Whether the alarm was a clock to wake up, Frank (his own personal alarm system) yelling to get out of bed followed by another round of the usual activities, or the beeping of a heart monitor. Steadily picking up pace…

  
This time it was the later that startled Jimmy out of his slow transition to consciousness. That was even more surprising. As the remnants of that ‘person?’ slowly receding left Jimmy feeling colder and empty, the lack of the now familiar presence brought such unfamiliar emotions. Loss. Sadness. _A bone wary pain in my heart._

  
As my mind woke I opened my eyes. Immediately confronted by a blaring light, I squinted. A pattern emerged trough the brightness bringing into focus the tiling of the ceiling. That was when to smell of bleach in excess met my sensitive nose. Hospital, my memory supplied. There was no other place that could ever smell too clean. While staring at the too bright and white ceiling my too slow brain idly contemplated how I got here.

  
_The ravine… The officer… That feeling. Safe. Comfort. Towards me?_

 

 

The last thing I remembered before waking up in what must be a hospital was a hand. It was covered in a skintight black glove. When I first reached out I was expecting it to hurt: to be hard and cold. But it wasn’t. It was warm. As it gently folded over my own, there was a slight tingle of an ache, surprisingly not so much from the contact with a harsh mind but rather from the pressure placed over the bleeding appendage. _My hand was bleeding? When did that happen?_

  
Thinking back further I caught hints of that soft fluffy feeling that I used to get from children being held in the arms of their parents. Unsure who I felt it from I pushed on. There was hesitation hidden behind it. Wary but nowhere near repulsed. Cautious as if it not sure whether their action would hurt.

  
It was then that I realised that it wasn’t my emotions I had felt at that time. They belonged solely to the only other person that had been there at that time. The Officer.

  
_But why would he care about me?_

 

 

“Shhhhhuu.” The sound of a hydraulic door opening startled me. Glancing to the side that the sound came from I came face to face with an elderly woman. She sported grey hair that hinted that it was once black but was turning white at the roots, standard blue scrubs with the white coat of a doctor was pleasantly hugging her tall filled figure. Her face was wrinkled with the signs of a good life long lived if the smile lines was anything to go by. I was just about to turn and ignore her very existence when I caught a flash of black. Her irises were black. They had an almost 'black hole' effect, sucking you in and keeping you there. Despite the fact they were black it was obvious that they definitely weren’t Tal’rikan or Vulcan in origin. A Betazoid: _Another telepathic species_. With eyes that showed no sign of malice - only a gentle flow of concern and kindness could be seen emulating from those eyes.

  
“Good morning, lovely. I’m glad to see your finally awake.” She spoke with a modulated voice.

  
“Finally?” I questioned, without thinking. 

  
“Yes, sweetie… You were in really bad shape when you were brought in. So bad that you’ve been in a healing trance for two weeks. But not to worry, it looks like everything is fine now. How are you feeling?”

  
“Um,” I pause to answer, taking stock of any pain in my body. Finding none – only tingling where I was hurt before, I answered in disbelief. “Great, I don’t feel any pain.” I can feel my checks tighten while pulling up into a small smile. My checks blushing.

  
She smiles in return while walking gracefully up to the side of the bed. Once standing beside my bed, she holds my eyes for a little while before turning to the monitor on the wall above the side table. I hear her tapping on the monitor until she turns back to me.

  
“Do you think you’re up for visitors, little one?”

  
My breath quickens, the monitor releases an abrupt tone, and her face looses its gentle smile and takes on a concerned frown. I reach out with my mind, hoping to catch a glimpse in her mind of who the visitor is, but I find nothing.

  
Frantically, I attempt to stretch my ability further but I find nothing. Theres nothing to search with... 

  
_No. It can’t be. They can’t be gone…_

  
I try again. And again… Reaching further into myself than ever before. Each time finding nothing…

  
It gets harder to breath with each passing moment.

  
“Beep! Beep! Beep!” An alarm sounds.

  
“Code blue!” I distantly here the Betazoid woman call, before I am swallowed by darkness.

 

*

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it took so long to update. I have since caught a couple of muses for stories/plot in other fandoms, but haven't completed anything closely resembling a story; mostly just one chapter and a slight plot layout.  
> At this stage I have no idea whether I will post any of what I have done. 
> 
> I apologies for getting distracted from 'Fate is Cruel'. Thank you to everyone for the great support, that your positive posts and kudos, have given me.  
> I will try to focus on finishing this story first before putting my attention onto others. I feel that is the least I can do as 'payment' for your responses that have encouraged me to continue to write fanfic.

**Author's Note:**

> My work was inspired mainly by the fanfictions Empathy by RubyHair and My Name Is James by slytherincailin both from fanfiction.net, and numerous other fanfiction that I have read over the years.  
> As well as some other fanfics from multiple fandoms I stumbled upon. They were darker than what I normally read... and I have to say, I quite enjoyed the character development they showed in their stories. Unfortunately I lost the link. If I ever stumble upon them again I will post their link here incase anyone is interested.


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